HOLLAND -- Professor Lawrence Buell will present
the fourth biennial De Graaf Lecture at Hope College on
Wednesday, March 15, at 4 p.m. in the Maas Center conference
room.
Buell is an internationally known expert on
literature and the environment. His lecture, dealing with
environmental justice and ethics in literature and society,
is titled, "The Misery of Beasts and Humans."
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Buell is John P. Marquand Professor of English and
chair of the department at Harvard University. After
receiving his bachelor's degree from Princeton University
and his master's and doctorate from Cornell University,
Buell taught at Oberlin College for 24 years before moving
to Harvard in 1990. He served as dean for undergraduate
education at Harvard from 1992 to 1996.
His books include "Literary Transcendentalism:
Style and Vision in the American Renaissance" (1973), "New
England Literary Culture: From Revolution Through
Renaissance" (1986) and "The Environmental Imagination:
Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American
Culture" (1995).
His newest book, "Writing in an Endangered World:
Literature, Culture, and Environment in the United States
and Beyond," will be published next year by Harvard
University Press. His lecture at Hope is based on his
research for the book.
The Clarence De Graaf Lectureship was established
in 1988 by the family of Dr. Clarence De Graaf in memory of
his service on the faculty of Hope College. Dr. De Graaf
taught in the department of English for 44 years, until his
retirement in 1972, and served as department chair for 25 of
those years. The De Graaf Lecture is presented in alternate
years by a prominent scholar or artist working in an area of
interdisciplinary interest.
The Maas Center is located on Columbia Avenue at
11th Street.
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